Forum - View topicDoesn't age well
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Niceguy9418
 Posts: 82 |
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Anyone got a series that they totally dug at some point in the distant past that is practically unwatchable now?
I dusted off the original "BubbleGum Crisis" today. Now I LOVED this one back in the day. It was the first Anime I ever saw, and I've been hooked ever since. (I saw it just after it first came to the 'states.) My memories of the series were so good that years later it was also the first DVD I ever bought. But watching it today, after having seen everything I have recently... oh man... it was so bad it was funny. Oh man... the 1980's music, the 1980's hair styles... The girls wearing legwarmers and leotards!!! (Girls, 1983 called and she wants her gym-clothes back!) The artwork was -eh- I don't know... half of the time they weren't in their suits the Knight Sabers looked... pudgy, actually. Then there was the fact that they have combat cyborgs and sattelite ion weapons, but nobody owns a cordless phone! I mean... cordless phones were already common real-world technology back when this came out... and every phone in the series had a chord! (There were many other examples of anachronistic technology, that 's just the one that stuck in my head!) And the cheesy dialog and voice-acting was almost as bad as a dubbed martial-arts film from the 70's. Don't get me wrong... For me, it still has a certain nostaligic charm... but I definitley wouldn't pick it now to be someone's first experience with anime. That would pretty much turn them off to the artform permanently. It just hasn't aged well at all. (Yes I know there's a newer series, but I don't care - I'm a purist.) Anyone else like any series that? Good, but PAINFULLY dated? |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18587 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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The "pudginess" you refer to is actually pretty typical of mid-to-late '80s OVA character designs, as female characters generally had more substantial builds than they do now.
And yeah, the lack of cell phones bugged me, too, the last time I watched it the original BGC. Beyond that and the out-of-date fashions, though, I thought the series stood up pretty well. When watching much older stuff, what usually stands out most for me are outdated audio tracks and technical merits, especially if the release hasn't been remastered, and the way computers are drawn and handled. (If you look closely at content from the '80s and early '90s, for instance, on-screen computer text can include some really random things, like recipes and excerpts from instruction manuals. These days it's usually just pure gobbledygook.) |
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coffee
 Posts: 170 Location: Florida |
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Guyver was a big hit with my friends and I when we were growing up and just getting into anime. The monsters and the cool Bio-suit with the beam weapons was the ultimate in cool back in our day. Out of curiosity I netflix'd the last half of the series (I never could find a place that sold that part on VHS), and boy was I in for a shocker. Watching the animation now is like watching a bunch of paper dolls being jerked around with speed lines and color blobs for backgrounds. The dialog was then exposed to me as coarse and rough, and the music was nothing to speak of. Totally out dated and sadly deserves to be put at the backside of the shelf, rather than a featured spot in these days.
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Iwatch2muchanime
 Posts: 1291 |
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Well when I watch an older show, I don't really pay attention to the character design. However I do look at how the backgrounds and especially for Sci-Fi anime, the technical stuff and at both times I Love it still because I love the older animation yet I laugh sometimes when it just looks awful and too OLD for a futuristic show. And the audio may seem to bother me if I REALLY concentrate on it but otherthen that I don't care, but it isn't all thatgood.
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DragonsRevenge
 Posts: 1150 |
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I find those character designs nostalgic, even though I didn't watch a whole lot of them. Sailormoon didn't age well. It's quality all over is pretty crappy.
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undeadben
 Posts: 1212 Location: West Texas |
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That is pretty much it for me, nostalgia and memories. Maybe it is the age thing but I sometimes even look back to those old school type shows just because they were made in the 80's or early 90's. I've actually been meaning to buy the original BGC. The technology thing is actually pretty neat for me as far as contrasting, I especially like looking at computer designs from older shows and how back then most of the time bigger meant better. For example a character who owned a computer the size of a 2 story building would have an advantage over someone who had a computer the size of a car. And many other technological contradictions, like someone could design a mecha unit with artificial intelligence but could not have a simple radar capable of sensing when an enemy with a similar mecha is approaching. I just think it is neat to see what creators could come up with back in the day. However I have to agree that older style character and technology designs don't do so well when put up against the more modern look, especially when CG animation comes into play. And I think this is especially true of shounen series, probably just because it is more popular or visible. People who have spent the past year and this new year watching Bleach and Naruto only, and are fairly new fans, maybe even introduced to anime by those shows, would most likely not want to watch their predecessors because of that aged look. This is one of the reasons I don't think Hunter X Hunter could seriously make it in todays market if finally licensed. As far as plot and storytelling the show is superior to the others but with it's slightly older look not many would want to sit and watch that wonderful story. And HXH is not even that old, it was just made in 1999. And I guess even older fans, like some of y'all, who have gotten more used to the newer and newer looks, start to look at the dated works and be turned off by them. Too bad anime doesn't work like cars. Classic car designs will never go out of fashion but anime, since it is a visual storytelling medium, will alway be dated as the years pass. In 10 years or even less people will be talking about how bad today's shows look since the technology and fashions will seem so very old. Some new anime watcher who has just gotten into Bleach will be watching some new show called "Fabric Softener" in the year 2017, and then he'll put in one of his old Bleach DVD's, for old times sake and say something like, "I can't believe I used to watch that show, do you believe some of those clothes people were wearing, and those hairstyles. And those handheld cellphones look oldschool, why couldn't they have wristwatch videophones?" Or something similar depending on what everyone is wearing and using at that time. |
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darkhunter
 Posts: 2992 Location: Los Angelas |
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Older stuff like Ranma, Slam Dunk and maison Ikkoku bring back memories when animation was much simpler and the music was actually the best part (they were memorable). These were shows that I was watching when I was very young. I guess I'm an old schooler, I still love playing 2D sprite RPG (chrono trigger, secret of evermore, earthbound) and think they were more memorable than a lot of the 3D RPG of the playstation era. . Before the cellphone/internet revolution, when you have to call someone's house to see if they are at home just to get in touch with them. |
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varmintx
 Posts: 1255 Location: Covington, KY |
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I bought Record of the Lodoss War a few years ago because I remember enjoying the first few episodes when they were on the Sci-fi Channel and I always wanted to finish watching it. But, I found it so horribly generic in terms of character and story that I was bored to tears. I still haven't finished watching it.
I loved Voltron when I was a kid, (around '86 maybe) but despite the nostalgia, I couldn't watch it for more than a minute when it began its run on [as].
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Steve Berry
Posts: 522 Location: San Francisco Bay Area, CA |
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What bugs me is when people complain almost solely about the animation quality, or era specific soundtrack and clothing. It's as if they're not watching any of these old shows for the story or character development. It's annoyingly superficial. It makes me sound terribly elitist, but I can't help it.
Of course, there are shows from that era that really are terribly bad-- and often the bad animation, unimaginative design, trite pop-centric music, and uber hip clothing really highlight the already mediocre writing of the show. I agree that BBC, and Guyver, and Lodoss Wars (IMO) haven't aged well. Yet, I still think that things like the Area 88 OVA and Macross (just as off the cuff examples) have aged well, despite the animation being subpar by current standards, and the often dated character designs and music-- largley because the writing is still good for these shows. |
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KyuuA4
 Posts: 1363 Location: America, where anime and manga can be made |
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Well - can you really expect series made in the past to be up-to-date to today? Obviously not. However, it's a great way to see how things were "like" back then. Heck, even seeing regular TV from the past brings about that reflection.
People were strange back then, huh?  
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DuelLadyS
 Posts: 1705 Location: WA state |
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Ya know, I honestly can't say I've found any older anime I've sat down to recently to be so outdated, it's unwatchable. I think I go in with different expectations with older anime... like, if I sit down to a new(ish) giant robot anime, I'm expecting something seeped in political intrigue and real-world military tactics, and fairly sensible abilities on the robot's part. If it's an older show... I expect something close to DBZ with Mecha. Lots of hot-blooded young men shouting attacks at the top of thier lungs, because y'know, that's why it works so well. I guess there's a specific "feel" I expect from the old stuff that the new doesn't have, so I'm never really let down.
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nailz
 Posts: 30 Location: USA |
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I have to agree with DuelLadyS. If it's an older show, I know what to expect in terms of animation quality. When I read the initial post to this thread I immediately thought of cartoons from my childhood like He-man..which is only slightly tolerable now, but Thundercats is completely unwatchable!
The plot is pretty lame, but if I remember correctly, it was aimed more for kids and not teenagers. |
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penguintruth
 Posts: 8511 Location: Penguinopolis |
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While I'll agree that Bubblegum Crisis presents a futuristic view of what the 80s would be like if everything continued to be the 80s forever, I would hardly say that it's painfully outdated, mostly because it's such a spectacularly great OVA that it's worth rewatching again and again. Also, you were watching the dub? The Japanese cast is one of the strongest anime casts ever, even counting today's casts. Unless you dusted off the video casette tapes, you shouldn't be watching a dub from the era of nobody caring about dub quality. I bought the DVDs some years ago and the new edition a year or so ago when it came out. I plan to watch it again this week. |
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Area88
 Posts: 374 |
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It seems we speak the same language because i also recently rewatched Bubblegum Crisis and Record of Lodoss Wars only to be horrified by how much i over rated them. Despite their unique settings, both have quite generic storylines and actually bored me most of the time. The only thing i really enjoyed in Bubblegum Crisis was listening to the music again. Area 88 OVA is one of my all time favourites and it will never age simply because it it's tragic story and angsty adult characters are unique and appealing even today. The character designs may look dated to some but the animation still look cutting edge in terms of detail and motion. I'm so happy ADV released this on dvd. Macross - the tv series has aged quite a bit in both visuals and plot but DYRL movie from 1984 looks better than 99% of the anime being made today. Do You Remember Love is one of the pinnacle landmarks from the 80's, it's story is still an incredible ride to watch. |
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Randall Miyashiro
 Posts: 2451 Location: A block away from Golden Gate Park |
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Many of these shows evoke memories when I watch them again. The last time I watched the first BGC I remember that exact feeling that I had when I first saw it (as well as Macross Flashback) in 1987. Part of it was the big hype since the television commercial was only 15 seconds long. I kept watching it until the the LD/VHS was finally released. I just rewatched Area 88 last year, and the animation still is top notch. I remember watching Macross on television and thinking how some episodes were poorly animated compared to many of the Sunrise mecha shows. I also remember being blown away by the movie's animation which like Area 88 mentioned is still one of the most gorgeous films out there, I thought the Sailor Moon animation was awful when it first came out.
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